Aerial Incident
by MeowthTwo
Summary: When the twins jet-judo Starscream flying over the Autobot base,they have to deal with the cosequences of their actions.


Aerial Incident

Starscream was flying over the Autobot base. It was something he liked to do, ever since he had found out where it was, go up into the Jet stream, get carried along by it, dive down through the stratosphere, see if anyone was coming in or out and flip them the bird, flying as low as he could and then jetting away. Of course he could just as easily shoot them, but that would count as a battle, and he'd have to call the other Decepticons to do that, and that would spoil his fun!

Of course, he could not be sure who would come out. Some Autobots were more satisfying to annoy than others. Some were a great laugh, some were no fun, some could be dangerous, and some were annoying back.! Oh no, he thought, this was going to be one of those days!

Two mechs came out of the base, one red, one yellow. They squared up, and launched off on their thrusters, each heading for one of his wings. If he turned sharply, perhaps he could turn away from them and shake them off!

He banked in an in an instant, but a sharp "thunk!" on each wing told him he had hesitated too long. In fact the turn had facilitated the Twins' usual plan to unbalance him: they had taken off at the same time and at the same amount of velocity, but one wing being higher than the other in the turn had made one land a fraction of a second later and unbalanced Starscream, making him lose height.

Starscream realised he should have taken off, climbing away straightaway, but although he was a coward, his way was to stand, taunt and defy, not take off straightaway, because he was a genius and a commander! Dizzy and confused, he spun, trying to shake off the flailing Autobot protuberances clamped to each wing.

"Hang on Sides!" yelled Sunny, "Ol' Screamer 'll do anything to stop our jet judo, but we caught 'im this time , an' he's in for a hammering!"

"You said it, Sunny!" Sides called back, "You can' expect to fly over the base without no retaliation, 'Screamer, we can tell you came for fun!"

Judgement unbalanced, Starscream realised he had not seen the mountain behind the base, his radar warned him of it, and he knew he could clear it, but if he knocked off either or both of those nuisances in a steep, wing-twisting manoeuver it would be all to the good!

"You fools, you'll crash us all in the snow! Leave me alone!" he cried, shaking himself like a wet earth organic dog. Yes! He was going to make it through that gap in the peaks! Only one more more nano-centimetre-No! the mech on that wing had spun round to foul it on the rocks! There was a ripping tearing sound, a complicated triple impact, and everything went black.

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Sunny picked himself up out of the snow, shook it off his arm-wings and brushed off some rock-dust, preparing for a fight with the outraged Decepticon Air commander. When it did not immediately come, he looked round for a red shape in the snow, similar to himself.

"Sides? Bro? You'k? "he called , coming over anxiously.

His brother was moving, which was more than could be said for their less-visible antagonist, who was still in plane form. A tail-fin was broken off and stuck in the rocks and a wing lay off separated from the rest of the body.

"Screamer?" Called Sideswipe. "Uh , I think we'd better call Ratchet."

"Why don 't we just leave him there, and save ourselves a whole lot of trouble." said Sunny, "It could end the war!"

"No bro, it wouldn't, and its just not worth facin' the Hatchet's temper if he does find out "said Sideswipe ruefully "or Prowl's ." He cycled his vents in a sigh.

Sunny sighed too and nodded. They commed Ratchet, explained, and after receiving audios full of invective, started to check for signs of life and pick up pieces.

Ratchet called for all available Autobots to help him get a patient under cover to avoid further deterioration in inferior weather Prime with his flatbed, Ironhide, Hound, Mirage, Jazz, and Prowl all turned up.

"Pick up every piece, it may be important," the Medic said , taking charge of the situation. Sunny and Sides were the main stretcherbearers though, getting Starscream on Optimus' flatbed with a tarpaulin over him with the help of Hound and Ironhide under Ratchet's direction while the others kept watch. Then they all set off in a convoy back for the base.,

They even hung around trying to be helpful in Ratchet's Medbay. feeling responsible that they'd caused the crash. While he was grateful for their help in getting Starscream in and onto a repair platform, Ratchet soon got fed up with them fetching him things, looking for things in the wrong places, and bringing him cleaning fluid instead of oil, for instance.

"Get out of here and go and find something else to do ! This is serious enough without you two messing me up! I don't know if I've even got tail- parts for him!" he shouted, throwing wrenches at them." Go on patrol or go tidy your room, I'm sure it needs it!"

"Cheek! I keep our room quite respectable otherwise we 'd trip over things !" Cried Sunny, as the two set off on patrol, the easiest thing they could do otherwise.

"Yeah, we just throw everything in the cupboard if someone visits!" Rejoined Sides.

"Not my special wax we don't !" Sunny reminded him, "Nor my special yellow alt. finish, Nor my painting things or sculpture models, I like to know where they are!"

"Yeah well you can subspace anything special to you, just as I can with certain gadgets and weapons of mine, but I treasure my friendships most, and them you can't subspace! Poor ole 'Screamer not being able to have his tail repaired!." Sideswipe thought he 'd better change the subject, if he and his brother started going into what they liked or didn't like or what each was best at, it inevitably ended in a fight, and while scrapping with his brother was good, he couldn't really do it on the streets of Tranquility without bringing the Autobots into disrepute..

"Yeah, it's a shame we can't do anything about that, n' show Ratchet we can be helpful at times! D'you think any of our human army pals would be of help?"

"No go bro', we couldn't risk the government supply stores finding' out we'd helped the Decepticons! I have a cool plan though: you remember that mechanic friend of Epps who "retired" from the air force and collects spare parts?"

"Yes, Uh-Colonel Tony? He has a secret workshop. I'm not sure if Ratchet would agree-"

"No need for that, we just sneak Screamer out while he's shut down, get a new tail stuck on him, them sneak him back into Ratchet's Medbay before he finds out!"

Sides considered. His twin's hair-brained schemes and tricks often got them into trouble with Ratchet and Prowl but this seemed fool-proof.

"Ok , he gave us his cell number didn't he? We'll look him up, do the transfer and have Screamer back before Ratch has a chance to get stressed."

Col. Tony still did odd secret things for the government. The workshop was an ex- missile store-base and still had the motorised sleds for the missiles. So they were allowed to take take one out and bring it back loaded. Ironhide, who was on guard, did not think anything of it for they often had landings at night and the twins brought people in and out on stretcher duty. It was usually only out if they did not make it but it was customary to be laid out under the stars even if they could not be launched back. into them in the Cybertronian funeral ceremony tradition.

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Starscream woke in a dark place. His wings ached, he could not feel his tail, and worst of all he had the feeling he was deep underground! The Aerial Commander checked his sensors: he could speak but not communicate, and he could not use his weapons. To offline them would be usual in a prison situation ,but he could detect no available source of power, no energon, no tarpaulins and almost no air. Would the Autobots do this to him? And, more importantly how long were they going to leave him like this? He howled and clawed at the walls in frustration!

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Ratchet was angry, and more than that, stressed. He tried not to get flustered in his position as it affected the patients but he had lost one! Starscream was gone, and he hadn't even known he could walk, let alone fly!

"Cliffjumper why didn't you wake me up?" he fumed "Starscream's missing, and as these are unusual circumstances I'm thinking of calling in Prowl! Who was the last mech in here near him?"

"We could do a scan of the base for a Decepticon signaL,..hHnnh I think the Twins were the last ones in here, with a stretcher trolley-"

"I knew it!" Ratchet said grabbing two large wrenches and looking around quickly.

"We needed them, " said Cliffjjumper, "there was a big landing last night and several were brought in injured, they were giving me orders to fix up their crew rooms last thing this morning, but you were very busy last night."

"I remember, " said Ratchet scratching himself behind the audio with one of the wrenches in memory of how tiring it was doing all the welding and repairing. "Those rocks on the way to Earth can certainly do some damage! I didn't expect to wake up to an empty Medbay however. Go and find them for me, some of those mechs had serious injuries and I must check up on them first. Tell the twins they are not in real trouble as long as they tell me what happened, but if they hold out on me I AM calling in Prowl- and Optimus Prime!"

It was a more difficult job than Cliffjumper at first thought because Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were not in their room, and when he asked in the rec. room where they often threw darts at pictures of Megatron, Starscream, Sector 7 Agent Simmons and Galloway, they were not there and Blue- streak , who was lying on the couch telling anyone who would listen the long story about the massacre of his settlement, thought they might have gone on patrol. So he had to go and check the duty roster with Mirage who was on Comms at the gate. Mechs did not always answer personal comms.

"No, I can't get them, if they were out they've come in again," said the blue and white mech, after getting a stream of static and "no signal available" from the big army computer monitor. "Try the storeroom. Prowl sometimes puts them there inventorying as punishment or to keep them out of mischief."

Cliff jumper thanked him. Here he had better luck. They were in the Storeroom sticking all of Prowl's PADs to the ceiling with blu- Tac. He chuckled.

"Ratchet wants to see you two about the whereabouts of Starscream," he said "I won't tell him or Prowl about this but if you don't go and 'fess up if you had anything to do with his disappearance, he's going to tell Prowl and Prime!"

"We better go bro, " said Sideswipe, "I'd hate to be on the end of one of Prime's speeches about how he's disappointed in us!"

" Yeah," said Sunstreaker, surveying their handiwork ruefully. He loved their leader who was kind as well as a good Commander who often took their side against Ratchet and Prowl saying their pranks were the result of "the high spirits of youth in a boring and otherwise telling and fearful war," He had even taken it in good faith when they had painted "Kiss it!" on his aft in Sunstreaker's best yellow paint while he was deep in recharge in the Med-bay. Ratchet had been recharging there too but they had not dared do anything to him. Most of the rec. room had not dared tell him, just giggled, and he had had to ask Prowl (even he had to smile as he told him) and Ratchet had to clean it off with turpentine in the Medbay . " I'd wanna sink through the floor, I'd rather have a wrenching!"

"Well, go along to the Med-bay and talk to him before he blows a gasket and rouses the whole base!" the red Scout said. "Shee, I guess I gotta clear all these up an' take 'em back to Prowl''s office!"

"Aw , please don't, he doesn't even know yet, we haven't seen the expression on his face!" said Sunstreaker. "I don't suppose you could hide in the scrap-pile and record that for us, Cliffjumper? Please! All the base would like to see the vid! We'd give you a week's leisure energon for it!"

"O. K. but you guys owe me one! Go on now!" said Cliffjumper, settling down into the scrap-pile.

The Twins trooped into Ratchet's Med-bay. He did throw wrenches at them, but in a way it was good to tell him and get that bit over with.

"We thought you wouldn't notice!" called Sideswipe dodging a wrench. "We thought we could get Starscream's tail-fin fixed an' get 'im back 'ere before anyone was ever the wiser! "

"You didn't ask before stealing My Patient! I might 've agreed if you'd ASKED!" cried Ratchet, throwing the other wrench at his brother. It hit him with a clonk and Ratchet quickly scanned him to see if he was seriously hurt for he loved these twins really.

As even Sunstreaker looked suitably contrite after this he changed to a more useful topic.

"Well , where did you take him? I've ordered the metal for the tail, Cliffjumper can easily make it for him. He's a Seeker you know, he 'll hate being locked up and he'll go mad if he does not fly in three days!"

"We'll take you to him," said Sideswipe, "We'll get him out in in time."

Getting him out was not as easy as getting him in. For one thing,, Col. Tony was not there, and the two military police on the gate would not let them in. Ratchet .had brought Optimus Prime with his flatbed but he had to get Ironhide and Major Will Lennox for higher military clearance. They managed to contact the old aviation engineer.

"What's the hurry? I have to order the parts in. I would have called you when I had finished the job," he said. "You haven't left an armed explosive on the plane have you?"

"I don't know if it's possible to totally disarm a Decepticon," Said Ratchet "but I don't know if you know what you're dealing with. He's not just a plane, he's a sentient robot, he won't like being underground and I want to make sure we can get him out with his wings, processors and spark intact."

Col. Tony said "As we're dealing with an F-22 here I wanted to make sure it was secure. It's in the second chamber nearest the surface. I don't need a call from the president on a red telephone or two keys or a red button but that door is on a time- switch, keyed to the normal surface delivery time of 4 days, the time a business takes to clear a check,"

"That's not good enough, I have to check if he's all right," said Ratchet. "Don't these silos have facilities for moving the missiles at a moment's notice?"

"You're right, lets go to the control room" said the mechanic and led the way to it.

Just in case the missiles needed to be armed, repaired or time- fused by hand there was two-way communication with the room Starscream was in and Ratchet seized the mic.

"Starscream are you all right down there?" he asked

"Ratchet, is this some kind of Autobot- human dungeon?" the seeker quavered."Please let me out! I'll do anything you say, please let me see the sky again!"

"We'll get you out, there's been a mistake, I did not mean this to happen, " stated Ratchet. He looked at the missile moving system that Will was trying to work out. "We're sending you in a car run on tracks. Get on it and pull the lever on it back."

The wall opened and the car came duly through Starscream got on it and clamped himself in for safety, although he did not like the idea of it He was not used to human train or even plane controls from the outside and was short on energon.

He fumbled the switcherv and pushed it forward instead. It jerked, creaked and carried him backwards even deeper underground!


End file.
